jacob wrote:
Yes, INTPs would naturally be inclined to be annoyed by the MBTI while INTJs would naturally tend to love it.

Lol -- yep, that describes me.

I generally test INTP. In college it was strongly so except for a borderline J/P (I was so sure of myself!). On the INTJ vs. INTP test I'm 53% INTP, which follows that pattern. Interestingly, with this new one I'm INFP-A but within 10-20% of the median on everything but the P and probably would change categories if I moved a few sliders I was legitimately unsure of. So perhaps my frustration with MBTI is that my personality may be naturally neutral and can break different ways depending on the question or situation. Or maybe I've legitimately grown as a person, although I understand MBTI advocates argue that people don't change.

"An odd juxtaposition arises with ENTPs, as they are uncompromisingly honest, but will argue tirelessly for something they don't actually believe in, stepping into another's shoes to argue a truth from another perspective."

lol

Hubs is ESTP.

He's practically glowing with the part that says he'll be a perfect parent.

I generally score INFJ. I think they are the most extroverted introverts? Most people think I am an extrovert but I am definitely an introvert to the core. I love people and being around people but I need lots of time on my own to charge up so that I can be engaged and happy around other people.

I think there is definitely something to this MBTI stuff. One of the things I have heavily interested in is meeting up with groups of people for conceptual discussion about philosophy, psychology, religion and political issues. Discussions of depth. Apparently this is very much an INFJ thing, especially psychology focussed discussions. At a couple of the psychology meetings I made the point of asking most people present their MBTI. On both occasions about 50% of them were INFJ despite that being apparently 1% of the population.

I always end up with the I, the rest is abit random depending on the questions and how I feel/think in the moment. The description was entertaining and occasionally spot on. I can't imagine there are too many ERE ISFP's out there.

100% on observant. That seems high? I'm not really sure how to interpret that. What's the oppositional quality for that one?

I dislike personality tests generally. My context for them, though, is the business environment where a consultant comes in and tests you and gives everyone some paper with strategies on it. I always come out as an introvert (duh) and the advice I'm usually given is along the lines of:
"As an introvert, your weakness lies in not speaking up often and loud enough to put forward your point of view. To counter this, try harder to speak up more frequently and louder."

Which I've always found distinctly unhelpful.

The description, though, suits me in many ways.
"Dependency on others is often seen by ISTJs as a weakness" - yep
"honesty is far more important than emotional considerations, and their blunt approach leaves others with the false impression that ISTJs are cold, or even robotic" - maybe so
"seek stability and security" - yeah
"The facts are the facts, and ISTJs tend to resist any new idea that isn't supported by them. This factual decision-making process also makes it difficult for people with the ISTJ personality type to accept that they were wrong about something" - I do have difficulty admitting I'm wrong, yes

What really rang out for me though:
"Nothing is quite so challenging for ISTJs as ongoing debates about who is responsible for what, resulting in work that's shoddily assembled – or worse, incomplete"
Oh goodness, my current workplace has terribly long meetings with people taking about problems they're not responsible for and can't change. And the things they are responsible for suffer through endless debates about who, in particular, is responsible.
It makes me long for the partner at the consulting firm I used to work for, who within minutes of deciding an issue needed action, would assign the task, and specify what action was expected by what time. Damn I miss that.

"As an introvert, your weakness lies in not speaking up often and loud enough to put forward your point of view. To counter this, try harder to speak up more frequently and louder."

Im not surprised you have found that unhelpful. I think people often misunderstand introversion. For me it really comes down to whether you acquire energy from being on your own or being with other people. I have no issue speaking up in front of people on a regular basis despite being an introvert and see it as a separate issue.

"As an introvert, your weakness lies in not speaking up often and loud enough to put forward your point of view. To counter this, try harder to speak up more frequently and louder."

It's like saying, "as an introvert, your weakness lies in being an introvert".

Why is being an introvert seen as a weakness?

I do not need to speak up and put forward my point of view. I have my point of view; I see no need to persuade other people to it, or even share it with them. I'm fine with them keeping their point of view.

Last edited by heyhey on Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

thrifty++ wrote:I have no issue speaking up in front of people on a regular basis despite being an introvert and see it as a separate issue.

The way I'm introvert about this is that I don't like to speak to an audience just to prove I can do it. If I actually have something to say I don't mind saying it to a lot of people, but I will have tried to think it thoroughly through in advance. A lot of extroverts don't seem to make this distinction. They are proud of being able to talk for a long time. If they are given 60 minutes to explain something they will fill that time, even if they could have given the actual information in a fraction of the time or in a short email. I see this as wasting everybody's time, and I would be ashamed if I was the one doing it.

Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs
"Yet though her creation is everywhere, Myers and the details of her life's work are curiously absent from the public record. Not a single independent biography is in print today. Not one article details how Myers, an award-winning mystery writer who possessed no formal training in psychology or sociology, concocted a test routinely deployed by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies, the US government, hundreds of universities, and online dating sites like Perfect Match, Project Evolove and Type Tango. And not one expert in the field of psychometric testing, a $500 million industry with over 2,500 different tests on offer in the US alone, can explain why Myers-Briggs has so thoroughly surpassed its competition, emerging as a household name on par with the Atkins Diet or The Secret."

I've done this before and I always get the I and the J (even though J is low on this one) but the others can change. I like the description of the Defender, but it doesn't suit me in all respects.

Here's the description from the "who you were in high school" site. I didn't marry my high school sweetheart, but I might have if he'd asked at the right moment, or if he hadn't taken up alcoholism very early in life.

ISFJ
You were the teacher’s pet. You got straight A’s, scraped by socially and ended up marrying your high school sweetheart. You were too sweet to be picked on but too shy to be popular so you stuck close to a few good friends and just rode your teen years out.

After discovering MBTI and personality types, I read about it and took the test. Really, this was a bit too late in my life, I have suffered years of Company-abuse without understanding my profile - always beeing a bit too smart, - never really feeling at ease with the other people !

Nowdays I'm in ERE mode, Financially Independent hopefully, don't want to fight or interact with all the stupid career-people anymore. I Like Substance not Show. My Projects now are Python and Java programming, Travelling & Biking, and studying Evolution and Physics.

I discovered this test in a forum dedicated to systematic trading. I didn't care much about it until I realized that 35 to 40% of the members who took the test were also INTJ, and about 15% were INTP. It made me think that there is some "truth" in this test.